FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Monday, July 20, 2015

CFT continues to call for the return of school’s democratically-elected Board of Trustees, shift focus to accrediting commission

On Monday, the California Community Colleges Board of Governors voted to extend the appointment of a Special Trustee to oversee City College of San Francisco.

“The continued appointment of the Special Trustee to oversee City College of San Francisco flies in the face of a democratic process,” said CFT President Joshua Pechthalt. “The people of San Francisco elected the Board of Trustees to govern City College, and anything that takes that power away from the people and their elected representatives is an insult. We are extremely disappointed with the Community College Board of Governors’ decision to reappoint a Special Trustee for City College. The people of San Francisco should decide who governs the college, not an appointed body.”

The initial reasoning for a Special Trustee for City College came out of a 2013 diaccreditation decision from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. Since then, a Superior Court judge has ruled that the ACCJC broke the law in that flawed process. There is no justification to continue with a Special Trustee for City College.

“The approval of the Special Trustee is completely unnecessary for City College of San Francisco,” said AFT 2121 President Tim Killikelly. “It’s been over two years now and local control needs to be returned to the democratically elected board. The board of governors needs to shift its focus to the real problem at hand – the ACCJC – and find real solutions to the continuing accreditation nightmare for all the community colleges in California.”

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The CFT represents over 25,000 faculty in thirty community college districts, and 120,000 educational employees at every level of the education system, from Head Start to UC. More info: www.cft.org.